Saab is about to die, with GM killing talks and announcing plans to shutter the brand. The brand's vehicles will live on, at least temporarily in Chinese models based on the 9-3 and 9-5 platforms sold to a Beijing automaker. (Source: AutoBlog)

There's no storybook ending to this Saab story

The Saab story was a dramatic piece
from start to finish. Saab Automotive launched officially in
1949, bringing its engineers' experience in aircraft aerodynamics to
the auto industry. That high-tech legacy set the company off to
a solid start, but couldn't spare it from a downturn in the late
1980s. Convinced that the company would turn around, GM bought
half of the company in 1989.

In 1995, the automaker posted its
first profit in seven years. However, it quickly slid back into
losses as its lineup weakened and failed to appeal in the luxury
market against the likes of Lincoln, Lexus, Buick, Acura, Infiniti,
and Cadillac. Nonetheless, GM loaded Saab onboard in 2000,
buying the remaining half of the shares on the market, in line with
its 1989 vision.

The future looked promising. New models
like the 9-3 and 9-5 pleased many luxury buyers and sales started to
show signs of life as it entered the turn of the century.
However, the economic downturn that hit starting in 2007 and
continued in earnest through 2008 into 2009 would eventually spell
doom for the Swedish veteran.

And it was the beginning
of the end of this Saab story. GM tried to sell Saab to Dutch
supercar-maker Spyker, but in the eleventh hour the promising bid
fell flat, leaving Saab Automotive with a final ride into the
twilight. GM announced Friday that it would not be selling
Saab's remaining assets or continue the brand, but
would instead "wind down" its operations.

A blow
to the Swedish economy, the decision is a hard pill to swallow, but
it was expected. And for Saab enthusiasts, there's still an
extra wrinkle to consider. GM has reached a deal with Beijing
Automotive Industry Holding Corp to sell the Chinese automaker
technology and assets behind its popular 9-3 and 9-5 lineup.
That means that while the Saab nameplate may die, its image will live
on for some time in Chinese-branded clones. For some who miss
Saab, that's a comforting thought, for others, a final affront in the
ill-fated Saab story.

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Saab didn't have a small car something important (at least in Europe), that's really a reason why they fell so bad. It wouldn't have shielded them from the 30% drop, in sales, but it would at least made them money when they had sales. For example 10% of Volvo's sales in 2007 where C30, 13.6% where V50 (another 13.75% S40). Saab could have easily sold 10-20k more cars with just one small model.

We buy big cars in Sweden, V70 is the most sold. But these companies can't live on Sweden alone. They must understand that and they have not. Saab was only small cars till the 80's... And production in Sweden is actually cheap compare to the states where they need to pay massive health care and pension insurances.

They actually did have one developed. It started as the 9-X concept and I think eventually became the 9-1. GM killed the project and release.GM killed a lot of Saab. Just google back to around 2000. Saab had a running prototype variable compression engine which won a bunch of awards; GM accountants killed the development, let go the engineering department, and moved development to Detroit. Way to go!